Staff Software Engineer - IAM, Cloud Platform

About the role

IonQ, Inc. is the world’s leading quantum platform and merchant supplier, delivering integrated quantum solutions across computing, networking, sensing, and security. We are seeking a Staff Software Engineer to lead the development of our Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) systems, enabling our customers to federate their own identities and protect their organizations' data.

Responsibilities

• Own the technical vision and architecture for IAM and RBAC systems across the entire platform for multiple products. Design, evolve, and standardize scalable authorization models (RBAC, ABAC, policy-based access) that support complex enterprise use cases.
• Drive cross-team initiatives that impact authentication, authorization, and identity lifecycle management.
• Make high-impact architectural decisions around:
  • Role modeling and permission hierarchies
  • Identity propagation and service-to-service authorization
• Act as the final technical authority on IAM/RBAC design reviews and critical security decisions.
• Ensure IAM and RBAC systems meet high availability, performance, and reliability requirements.
• Establish operational standards for:
  • Role changes and permission rollout
  • Emergency access and break-glass procedures
  • Monitoring and alerting for auth-related failures or abuse

You'd be a good fit with:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field, or equivalent training, fellowship, or work experience
• 8+ years of professional software engineering experience, with a history of technical leadership and shipping large-scale, mission-critical systems
• Deep, expert-level knowledge (4+ years) on designing, building, and operating IAM and RBAC systems in production environments at scale
• Past experience implementing SAML 2.0 in production
• Proven experience designing and leading large-scale, cross-team technical projects from inception to completion, especially track record of leading cross-team initiatives related to identity, access control, or security platforms
• Solid understanding of microservices architecture, event-driven systems, and data consistency patterns
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, demonstrated through a portfolio of technical design documents, architectural diagrams, or public presentations
• Expertise programming backends in Go or JavaScript
• A strong sense of ownership and the ability to navigate ambiguity to drive complex projects forward with a high degree of autonomy
• A practice of using AI in day to day coding

You’d be a great fit with:

• 10+ years software developer experience
• 5+ years experience writing microservices in a Kubernetes environment
• Past experience with GCP
• Experience evolving or migrating legacy authentication/authorization systems to modern, scalable architectures
• Deep familiarity with enterprise security requirements, including least privilege, auditability, and compliance constraints
• Experience operating IAM systems that support high availability, low latency, and strict reliability SLOs
• Active participation in the broader tech community (e.g., open-source contributions, conference talks)
• Regular use of fully agent-based augmented coding

Location

This role will work onsite or hybrid at our office located in Bothell, WA.

Travel

Once per quarter

Job ID

1409

Pay

The approximate base salary range for this position is $174,520 - $228,492. The total compensation package includes base, bonus, and equity.

Benefits

Our benefits include comprehensive medical, dental, and vision plans, matching 401(k), unlimited PTO and paid holidays, parental/adoption leave, legal insurance, and a home technology stipend.

Qualifications

We are committed to equity and justice. We welcome different voices and viewpoints and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. We are dedicated to creating an environment where individuals can feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued.

Equal Opportunity Employer

We are proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ancestry, physical and/or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.

Export Control Compliance

Due to applicable export control laws and regulations, candidates must be a U.S. citizen or national, U.S. permanent resident (i.e., current Green Card holder), or lawfully admitted into the U.S. as a refugee or granted asylum. Accordingly, we will have some additional questions regarding your immigration status that will be used for export control and compliance purposes, and the answers will be reviewed by compliance personnel to ensure compliance with federal law.